SmallWorlds

SmallWorlds

Industry	Technology
Fate	Discontinued: April 8, 2018 at 11:59 PM
Founded	2008
Headquarters	Auckland
Key people	Mitch Olson and Darren Green co-founders

SmallWorlds was an online virtual world and social network service created by Outsmart Games, a privately owned company based in Auckland, New Zealand.^[1][2] The virtual world used flash and ran inside a web browser and integrated with YouTube, Flickr, and a number of other Web 2.0 services. The game had thousands of players, and peaked in 2012 with a total of 3.8m global visits from July to August.^[3]

It was announced in March 2018 that due to shrinking player numbers and financial struggles, the game would be shutting down. As of April 2018, it has closed. A message left on the smallworlds website states that there are talks and plans going on, and they hope to resume service soon.

Awards

In October 2009, SmallWorlds was voted top prize in the Social Computing category of the Adobe MAX Awards 2009^[4]

Users

SmallWorlds was a free to play and join, with a requirement to be at least 13 years of age. The game had users that are both teens and adults. SmallWorlds was aimed at being teenage friendly so it was designed to be more casual and less provocative than Second Life.^[5]

SmallWorlds also had a VIP option with extended game options for players at a monthly, trimonthly, half yearly or, yearly cost. This gave users extra game options such as further character customization, clothing / wearable options, and other special perks not available to free users. VIP could be purchased with real currencies used around the world or with virtual currency (SmallWorld's Gold) that was earned in the game and via offers through the game.

According to co-founder Mitch Olson, SmallWorlds demographic base as of 2012 were about 65% female predominately teens, followed by soccer mums.^[6] This game was played by a lot of people worldwide and has added many items of clothing to represent many different cultures.

Partnerships and integration with social media

In February 2009, SmallWorlds launched embeddable versions of its application that integrate with Facebook, MySpace, Hi5 and Bebo.

With SmallWorlds, users could share their experiences together watching YouTube videos, listening to music on SoundCloud together and by browsing through photo galleries. SmallWorlds brought together all aspects of social media, online games, instant messaging and digital media into one bundle.^[7]

In Education

SmallWorlds was one of the tools for learning used for learning used in the development of the New Zealand Virtual School project.^[8][9] The project was scheduled to open in 2011, but with offices in central Christchurch, the Christchurch earthquake saw several changes that led to the termination of the project.

Levelling

Players in SmallWorlds had seven skill paths: arena, artist, crafting, explorer, farming, gamer and social, each with their own level. A player could level up by playing missions, doing PVP shooting games, sowing plants or crafting up items. There were many different widgets, but only one or two that worked at any given time^[10]

Business Model

SmallWorlds was based on the freemium model of sales, where one may play the game free, but can pay for extras, such as VIP membership, granting them access to various places around the site, and have the ability to buy items other players do not have access to, as well as gold, the main virtual currency of the game.

Updates

SmallWorlds entered Beta in June 2008 after 18 months in development, and was released on 1 December 2008. Several software updates have been released since that time.^[11] SmallWorlds launched version 1.0 in 1 December 2008. This involved performance enhancement, retexturing, and other various technical changes.

The site later on had seen a major update as of 5 April 2013. The new update includes a brand new layout for both the site and the forums. Also, there was a new reward programme called Kudos in which players receive a special item after completing the weekly challenge. Smallworlds replaced the gold payout that players paid for as a bonus with only XP rewards now.

Smallworld's had another major user-interface making it much sleeker and less jumbled by combining controls and features into collapsible panels on 13 June 2016.^[12]

Decline and shutdown

In February 2018, an I <3 SmallWorlds event was launched with an aim to increase online store purchases. Players were encouraged to purchase from SmallWorlds' online store packages, Gold, and VIP memberships to support SmallWorlds financially. SmallWorlds stated the company faced a shrinking audience and poor player numbers since 2015.^[13]

It was announced on 13 March 2018 that SmallWorlds and MiniMundos will shut down on 8 April 2018. The closure was blamed on a shrinking audience, financial struggles, and business laws in New Zealand.^[14]

SmallWorlds and MiniMundos officially were discontinued at 11:59PM on 8 April 2018. Players were active minutes before the shutdown and throughout the day hosting farewell events. An offline message states the company is in talks and hopes to resume service soon.^[15]

References

• Krynsky, Mark. "Small Worlds Brings Innovative Lifestreaming to the Virtual World", Lifestream Blog, April 23, 2009.
• Scoble, Jason. "SmallWorlds Brings a Third Dimension to Web 2.0", TechCrunch, May 21, 2008.